Courage to embrace anger What is courage? It derives from the Latin word cor or from French coeur, meaning “heart”. Rollo May, in his book The Courage to Create, eloquently illustrates that just as our physical heart, by pumping blood, is central to all other organs for functioning, so courage underlies all other virtues and values: “Without courage our love pales into mere dependency. Without…
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Anger necessary for progress Is it possible to achieve anything, or grow, if we don’t get “generously angry” (George Orwell)? Anger is one of the foundations for meaningful change, evolution, expansion, betterment, progress, assertion, both on the personal, societal, and humanitarian levels: “The reasonable man adopts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress…
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Unmet needs Marshal Rosenberg, the author of the non-violent communication method, in one of his books, The Surprising Purpose of Anger, says that anger is “a tragic expression of an unmet need”. He proposes to transform anger to discover and serve our needs. Also, I like how the creator of non-violent communication shares how violent his thoughts can be. He writes in one of his…
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You are now halfway through the 7-part essay. Feel free to jump to a specific section below. Part 1. The taboo of anger Part 2: Culture and personality types Part 3: Anger as personal power Part 4: Anger vs. trauma, depression. What anger has to do with freedom and choice? Part 5: Unmet needs. How anger is part of our creativity? part 6: Anger necessary…
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This is part 3 of the essay on anger. You can read here part 1 and part 2. Anger as personal power Would we be able to say ‘No’ if we rarely felt annoyed? Could we assert ourselves, maintain our self-respect, our identity, our personality, our core self, our essence, if we are not in touch with our spirit of ire? Anger and assertiveness are…
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